Aku
Aku is an evil, shapeshifting entity that has taken over the world and has ruled it for countless eons. He is the main antagonist of the series Samurai Jack and is one of the god-like antagonists of Mega Man ZX Shippuden. Appearance Though he is capable of shifting form into virtually anything he wishes, his standard form is roughly a humanoid being with a black body, a green mouth, and a red beard extending from the bottom of his chin. He also tends to have six horns, four long and two short, extending from his head, and eyebrows made of red, flickering flame. In his standard form, he also tends not to have legs, with his body simply ending at the bottom with robe-like darkness that sometimes manifests as flames, and he also tends to be several stories tall. A deep droning noise is often heard around him when he appears. Abilities *'Demonic Physiology': Aku is a demonic entity which Jack has described as the personification of primordial evil, Aku is one of the most powerful beings in the series, with only a few who are capable of fighting him. **'Immortality': A significant aspect in the series is that Aku is ageless and immortal. He requires no sustenance, and cannot be harmed by mortal means. Only the power of divine weapons like Jack's sword, or divine entities are capable of doing him harm. He also can bestow agelessness to others, as he demonstrated when he cursed a Nordic Warrior with eternal life to keep him from joining his friends and family in Valhalla. **'Shape-Shifting': Aku can change into virtually any form he desires, from a giant dragon to a small insect, or even a beautiful woman. He is able to seamlessly change his size, liquefy himself, or stretch and expand his body. He can even replicate into clones of himself to be in numerous places at once, with his mind inhabiting numerous bodies. At one point, he even manifested a second version of himself to act as a psychologist; performing talk-therapy on himself. He typically changes into animal forms during battle, such as a scorpion or an octopus, adapting to the situation. On one occasion, he also transformed into a huge, amorphous mass of darkness that greatly resembled the evil entity he had previously once been/spawned from, and could alter parts of himself at will. He is also capable of transforming into inanimate objects, as he demonstrated as one point by turning into a giant sphere to crush an opposing army. ***Bird: (he uses this form mostly to escape) used multiple times ***Scorpion: used in I and XXX also shown in opening titles ***Gorilla: used in I ***Billy Goat: used in I ***Kraken: used in I but also shown in beginning opening titles and in Mega Man ZX Shippuden. ***Squid: used in VIII and briefly seen in XXXVIII ***Manta Ray: used in IX ***Spiked Tubeworm : used in IX ***Cobra: used in XII ***Dragon: used in XIII ***Chinese Dragon: used in XXX ***Praying Mantis: used in XXX ***Amorphous Mass of Darkness: used in XXX ***Mouse: used in XXX ***Frog: used in XXXIV ***Fish: used in XXXIV ***Giant Spider: used in XXXVIII ***Winged Dragon: used in XXXVIII ***Army: used in XXXVIII ***Human: used in XLVIII ***Therapist doppelgänger: used in XCIII ***Giant Cannonball: used in XCVI ***Yamata no Orochi: used in Mega Man ZX Shippuden: Throughout the series. ***Giant Moth: used in Mega Man ZX Shippuden: Eggman Empire Saga; Throughout the saga. **Goomba: used in Mega Man ZX Shippuden and Codename: Kids Never Die ***Boo: used in Mega Man ZX Shippuden, High School Wars Saga; Throughout the saga. ***Tyrannosaurus Rex: used in Mega Man ZX Shippuden: Throughout the series. ***Lion: used in Mega Man ZX Shippuden: Throughout the series. ***'Supernatural Physicality': Aku can alter his physical capabilities to virtually any level he needs or wants due to his magical shape-shifting abilities. He has manifested superhuman strength, speed, endurance, and senses. No parameters or upper limits have been established regarding these capabilities. ***'Regeneration': While Aku is completely resistant to most forms of attack, he is not invulnerable; items such as Jack's sword or magics such as divine energy can damage the substance from which he is made. However, Aku is able to regenerate to a large degree even against attacks such as these. These sorts of assaults tend to create large, burning holes or gashes in him where he is struck, which Aku can close back up with effort. However, his ability to regenerate in these situations is limited. In many of his confrontations with Jack, damage caused by the sword whittles away at his overall mass and ability to regenerate in the short term, until it tends to leave him as a very small animal of some sort, such as a frog or a mouse, at which point further attacks would presumably either seal him away as Jack's father did, or kill him as Jack intends to do. Given time however, he always restores himself without being any worse for wear. **'Eye Beams': One of Aku's most commonly utilized attacks, this ability tends to manifest as beams of white or red light that typically incinerates the objects it makes contact with. It can be used either as continuous beams of light, or as staccato bolts of energy. He has used this ability in numerous battles with Jack, and he also used it to destroy the majority of his past kingdom. Aku can also harmlessly teleport beings to places of his choosing through this power. The beams can also slice through objects like a plasma torch, or cause them to explode. **'Remote Viewing': Using mystical forces in his lair, Aku can create images on the walls to view whatever he wishes. He tends to use this ability most often to simply watch Jack travel while stewing in his unhappiness at being unable to kill the samurai. **'Teleportation': Aku uses this often for quick appearances or escapes, and to appear before those he has business with, such as the Imakandi. **'Elemental Control': He can magically project and control the elements of the physical world. These abilities include breathing and projecting blasts and streams fire from his body, manipulating the earth itself, conjuring thunderstorms at will, or emitting waves of sonic force. By combining fire breath with his eye lasers, Aku can also project beams of electricity. **'Telekinesis': He has shown the ability to move, control and manipulate objects through will alone, even from huge distances. while using this ability, his eyes tend to flash white. **'Necromancy': Aku has been shown to be capable of animating countless dead bodies and bending them to his will. **'Precognitive Dreams': On one occasion, Aku was shown to be capable of receiving premonitions of his own future through his dreams, which he can then act upon. ** Possession & Infection: Aku can use small portions of himself to infect others with his evil. The only time this has been seen was when he incidentally spat up a tiny portion of himself at Jack, which, over the course of a day or so, proceeded to possess Jack, giving him the appearance and personality of Aku. On a related note, he can also use portions of himself to power machinery, as he demonstrated by doing so with the Ultra-Robots. **'Interstellar Travel': Aku is capable of interstellar travel at at least the speed of light. **'Time Portal Creation': This was the very ability that Aku used to send Jack into the future. It was only used once and was a one way portal forward in time and back. **'Object Materialization': The ability to create objects and materials out of nothing. He once used this ability to conjure treasures in the presence of the Imakandi. **'Corruption': Using dark magic, Aku can mutate normally harmless beings into monstrous versions of themselves. During his last known encounter with Jack, he used this ability to transform three small rams into monsters to fight Jack. It is also shown that if the corrupted creature dies, the spell will be broken and the creature will transform back to its original form. Aku also uses this power to curse the Well of King Ozric as well as corrupt Jack through his supposed illness. He was also able to infuse this power into techno music to corrupt children in Jack and the Rave. *'Combat Skills': Despite never having been shown to have trained at all in any form of martial art, Aku is a very skilled practitioner of hand-to-hand combat. Though not any sort of match for Jack, he was at least capable of defending himself reasonably well against Jack during their duel, while limiting himself to human physicality. He is also shown to be a fairly skilled swordsman, as on one occasion where he stole Jack's sword, he was able to force Jack (who was armed with a sword and shield) into a defensive posture during a bout of swordplay. However, it should be noted that on that occasion that Aku was not limited in the scope of the powers he could employ. Weaknesses Despite his powerful abilities, Aku has a few weaknesses. These include: *'Color Scheme': Aku's shape-shifting is limited to his color scheme and will remain red, black, and usually green (though not always) no matter what form he takes. While not particularly problematic with regard to combat, this can make disguising himself somewhat difficult (though he has still fooled Jack numerous times with his disguises, as Jack tends not to notice Aku's color scheme issues and, when he does see through Aku's disguises, it is because of Aku's personality rather than his colors). *'Reflection:' Aku's own reflection will reveal his normal form no matter what he has shifted to look like. *'Magic: ' Though Aku cannot be harmed by normal weapons and attacks, he can only be harmed, defeated and vanquished by Jack's sword and other divine or mystical forces. For example, the Goddess of Water and her 3 elemental servants were able to harm and defeat Aku with very little effort, although not to the same degree as three 3 gods Odin, Ra and Vishnu. Since Aku was a fragment of the greatest manifestation of evil, he can be destroyed by the strength and purity of a human's (and likely any other living creature) spirit, as stated by Vishnu. Jack's katana is virtually the only item which can cause Aku damage that he cannot instantly regenerate from. For this reason, Aku is reluctant to confront Jack head-on. *'Illness:' Aku appeared to suffer from flu-like symptoms, exposing an apparent lack of immunity to diseases. However, it is unknown how he managed to contract whatever illness he was suffering from. *'Vulnerability to Divinity:' Powerful deities like Ra, Vishnu, Odin, the Goddess of Water and her elemental servants are able to overpower and vanquish him. *'Ryuseken no Tsurugi:' A Legendary Sealing Sword that would seal him into it's tree form demonstrated by Paul Cutter Gekko and Murakumo Gekko. Ryuseken can cause Aku damage that he cannot instantly regenerate or forcing him into shape shift into many forms. Origin Long ago in the vastness of space, a great, formless, mindless entity of evil arose. Before it could do harm to the universe, it was set upon by the three prime deities of the Aesir, Egyptian, and Hindu mythologies: Odin the All-father, Ra the Sun God, and Vishnu, the Supreme God and Soul. The three deities fought a fierce battle against the black mass, burning the entity almost completely out of existence with their divine power. However, during the battle, one small fragment of the entity was incidentally cut from the whole by Odin and did not burn away. Unnoticed by the three deities, this seemingly small fragment floated away from the site of the battle and drifted through space for an untold amount of time, until it eventually, and violently, crashed on Earth during the Cretaceous period of the Mesozoic era. It is implied that the fragment of the black mass was the very object that caused the extinction of the dinosaurs (although the crash occurred in prehistoric Japan as opposed to the Yucatán peninsula by a massive asteroid even though it is possible that both impacts occurred around the same time 65.5 million years ago). Over eons, the fragment evolved into an ever growing ominous forest of black tree-like spikes, surrounding a tar-like pit at its center that devoured any living thing that dared enter. Eventually the forest grew so large that the Emperor (Jack's father) decided to kill the evil at its source. Armed with a poison elixir given to him by a Buddhist monk, the Emperor and his cavalry rode into the heart of the forest. But as they rode, the forest began to kill his men, leaving the Emperor himself as the only survivor. Once he arrived at the black lake in the forest's center, the Samurai Lord doused an arrow into the elixir he was given and fired it into the black lake, believing that it would destroy the evil forest. Unexpectedly, the poison arrow's magic had the unforeseen effect of galvanizing the evil mass into a humanoid form, giving it intelligence, sentience, and shape-shifting abilities. The evil proclaimed it's name to be Aku, and thanked the Emperor for inadvertently helping him. The Samurai Lord attacked Aku, but, with nothing more than his mundane, mortal weapons, he could inflict no harm upon the being. Aku easily defeated the Emperor, and strapped him to the side of a tree so that he could watch as Aku destroyed his home and killed his people. However, the Deities, sensing the good in the Samurai Lord, summoned him to them. Taking the good inside him, they used avatar bodies to create an enchanted sword that was capable of harming Aku. Armed with the sword and a magical suit of armor, the Emperor plunged into battle against Aku. In the end, the Emperor was victorious, but he was unable to destroy the demon, and so instead sealed him in the devastated wasteland in the form of a jagged black tree. As he was sealed away, Aku vowed he would one day return. During the battle, the Emperor's wife gave birth to a son. Determined to learn from the catastrophe, and aware that Aku would indeed one day return, the Emperor and his family hatched a plan, and orchestrated the events that would set Jack on his eventual years of training. Return Ten years later, during a solar eclipse, the tree form that Aku was imprisoned in dissolved and Aku was released. In a castle, Jack was a young child and his father was telling him how he defeated Aku. After the story was done, Jack was left alone, playing with a toy sword. Suddenly, the castle was covered in Aku's shadow. Aku unleashed a vicious attack on the city. Jack's father attempted to get the sword, but Aku captured him before he could reach it. The Lord told his wife it was time to enact the plan they had prepared. Following the plan, Jack's mother escaped with him and the sword. Jack then started on his journey to prepare both physically and mentally for his confrontation against Aku. Many years later, a formidably trained Jack returned to find his land devastated and his people, including his father, enslaved and horribly suffering, forced to harvest the rich resources of their land for Aku to increase his powers and spread his evil across the entire planet. Filled with righteous wrath, Jack quickly slew Aku's minions and went to Aku's palace to slay him. After a vicious battle, Jack eventually overpowered Aku. However, before Jack could finish him off, a desperate Aku tore open a portal in time and flung him into the distant future, a future in which Aku was certain that his evil would be spread out all over the world. Lava Monster was a human warrior and leader of a Norwegian kingdom. He lived a peaceful life with his loved ones until one day when Aku appeared. Try as they might, the warrior and his forces were crushed almost instantly by Aku with only the warrior left to destroy Aku. However; he soon found out that his weapons, which were ordinary, did not even harm Aku who merely laughed at the Warrior's attempt to destroy him before instantly defeating him. Even so; the Warrior unsheathed his sword, his only weapon left, ready to battle Aku for the last time but Aku had different plans for him. To punish the warrior and make him an example of the price of defying him, Aku imprisoned the Warrior within a unbreakable crystal, which made the Warrior immortal thus denying him a warrior's death, made the Warrior watch helplessly as Aku gleefully destroyed what was left of his beloved kingdom, and was then sealed in the core of a mountain, making him unable to pass on and join his people in Valhalla, the hall of slain heroes and resting place of all great warriors. The Future Unknown centuries passed before Jack reappeared into the world. During that time, Aku managed to terrorize and subjugate the majority of the entire world, making himself the undisputed ruler of Earth. Although he began with demonic servants to carry out his will, he later became enamored with mechanical servants, and recruited mad scientists to make the X-Model. All but one were eventually destroyed before the next generation of Aku's army were developed: the Beetle Drones. Successors to the X-Models, the beetle drones became the model for a series of insect-themed minions that served Aku well into the height of his power, and were his standard henchmen. Hungry for more power, Aku established the Earth as a space-faring world, opening his ports to surrounding worlds in order to plunder and conquer worlds beyond as well. The influx of aliens, ranging from enslaved species to rough immigrants, have made the Earth a hodge-podge of a dystopian society primarily run by tyrants and gangs. The few bastions of peace and hope typically remain out of Aku's wide field of vision. During Jack's revelation to Ashi, It is revealed that Aku also makes Earth becomes a paradise and haven for the lawless and scum of the universe as shown that some wanted intergalactic criminals come to Earth to escape prosecution and continue to do their criminal activities. As the result, Aku becomes a somewhat an great nuisance and injustice in the galactic community in general since he gives asylums for criminal. Since Jack arrived in the future, Aku habitually watches his progress through the world, and takes any and every opportunity to destroy the samurai, whether through unleashing his minion armies, hiring bounty hunters, using power objects, clever traps, trickery and deceit, and other methods in an unending struggle. Despite being highly feared, hated and despised by almost all sentient beings in the world and the universe, some people worship him like a divine figure. The prime example is the Cult of Aku. 50 Years Later Half a century after Samurai Jack arrived in the future, Aku managed to destroy almost all of the world's time portals. With Jack's ability to travel back to his own time seemingly eliminated, Aku decided to stop confronting Jack and simply wait for the samurai to die of old age. However, it later became apparent that Jack's initial time-traveling had halted his natural aging process and he only grew a large beard, leaving him forever at the age that he was when he first went through the time portal. This discovery scuttled Aku's plan and left him at somewhat of a loss as to what to do about his seemingly eternal foe. During this time, he also became annoyed by the fact that more and more people as well as alien in the Earth and the galaxy now willing to rebel against his tyranny due to inspiration from Jack. While sitting on his throne, Aku was informed by a henchman that his lair was under attack by a rebel army lead by the Scotsman. Aku decided to deal with the rebels himself, as he saw it as a chance to escape from his depression. Aku then flew out of his lair and shape-shifted into a giant cannon ball and effortlessly slaughtered most of the army. Aku was then confronted by the Scotsman, who insulted and ridiculed Aku, stating that Samurai Jack has inspired many to oppose Aku, only for Aku to shoot him with his eye beams, killing him instantly. Eventually, Paul Gekko appeared and slashed into Aku and caused harm that alarmed him, Paul Cutter Gekko then revealed the sword is one of many swords forged from the power of righteousness and Susanoo Uzumaki's arm and it's purpose to finish the Xiaolin Showdown against Wuya and help Grand Master Dashi for Aku to respond with a simple BAH and started to blast at him with his eye beams, dodging the beams or deflecting them and slashing Aku's form again he roared in pain and turned into a flying dragon and chased after him but before he could eat the Paul Cutter Gekko he slashed his head off and fell down, Aku then morphed into a spider and charged and Paul Gekko thrust the sword into him and morphed him onto it, he then returns the sword to the pedestal of bloodlines and Aku had no different plans for him, where it was noted to have slept forevermore and Aku is sunk into it as he cursed the old Paul Gekko and his children and vows to return before the another cosmic reset occur. New Origin Long ago in the vastness of space, a great, formless, mindless entity of evil arose. Before it could do harm to the universe, it was set upon by the three prime deities of the Aesir, Egyptian, and Hindu mythologies: Odin the All-father, Ra the Sun God, and Vishnu, the Supreme God and Soul. The three deities fought a fierce battle against the black mass, burning the entity almost completely out of existence with their divine power. However, during the battle, one small fragment of the entity was incidentally cut from the whole by Odin and did not burn away. Unnoticed by the three deities, this seemingly small fragment floated away from the site of the battle and drifted through space for an untold amount of time, until it eventually, and violently, crashed on Earth during the Cretaceous period of the Mesozoic era. It is implied that the fragment of the black mass was the very object that caused the extinction of the dinosaurs (although the crash occurred in prehistoric Japan as opposed to the Yucatán peninsula by a massive asteroid even though it is possible that both impacts occurred around the same time 65.5 million years ago). Over eons, the fragment evolved into an ever growing ominous forest of black tree-like spikes, surrounding a tar-like pit at its center that devoured any living thing that dared enter. Eventually the forest grew so large that the Emperor (Jack's father) decided to kill the evil at its source. Armed with a poison elixir given to him by a Buddhist monk, the Emperor and his cavalry rode into the heart of the forest. But as they rode, the forest began to kill his men, leaving the Emperor himself as the only survivor. Once he arrived at the black lake in the forest's center, the Samurai Lord doused an arrow into the elixir he was given and fired it into the black lake, believing that it would destroy the evil forest. Unexpectedly, the poison arrow's magic had the unforeseen effect of galvanizing the evil mass into a humanoid form, giving it intelligence, sentience, and shape-shifting abilities. The evil proclaimed it's name to be Aku, and thanked the Emperor for inadvertently helping him. The Samurai Lord attacked Aku, but, with nothing more than his mundane, mortal weapons, he could inflict no harm upon the being. Aku easily defeated the Emperor, and strapped him to the side of a tree so that he could watch as Aku destroyed his home and killed his people. However, the Deities, sensing the good in the Samurai Lord, summoned him to them. Taking the good inside him, they used avatar bodies to create an enchanted sword that was capable of harming Aku. Armed with the sword and a magical suit of armor, the Emperor plunged into battle against Aku. In the end, the Emperor was victorious, but he was unable to destroy the demon, and so instead sealed him in the devastated wasteland in the form of a jagged black tree. As he was sealed away, Aku vowed he would one day return. During the battle, the Emperor's wife gave birth to a son. Determined to learn from the catastrophe, and aware that Aku would indeed one day return, the Emperor and his family hatched a plan, and orchestrated the events that would set Jack on his eventual years of training. Rise of the Galactic Eggman Empire Ten years later, during a solar eclipse, the tree form that Aku was imprisoned in dissolved and Aku was released thanks to Paul Ivo "Eggman" Robotnik and Paul von Schroeder. Gallery Aku's Boo Form (2019).png Aku's Condor Form (2019).png Aku's Dinosaur Form (2019).png Aku's Goomba Form (2019).png Aku's Kraken Form (2019).png Aku's Lion Form (2019).png Aku's Moth Form (2019).png Aku's Yamata no Orochi Form (2019).png The Many Forms Of Aku by Nes44Nes.jpg Aku's Tsuchigumo Form (2019).png Aku's King Ghidorah Form (2019).png Aku (2018).png Aku (2019) Sprites.png Category:Characters Category:Anime Characters Category:Fanon Category:Deities Category:Entities Category:Game Characters Category:Villains